So there you have it - ads are very likely going to be part of Gmail soon. After all, it seems almost silly to not monetize a core app with an absolutely massive install base - between 500 million and a billion. I just hope these ads won't be overly intrusive, and from the looks of things, the Gmail team is approaching the situation with care.

This isn't any different than the monetization going on by the various services within Microsoft. I'm frankly surprised that any of you are surprised by this. Google has been a services company longer than Microsoft.